Chanju Samantha Mwale

Chanju Samantha Mwale is a Malawian lawyer and army officer. She was the first female lawyer in the Malawian Defence Force and in 2016 became the first female officer of the Malawian Army to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. She was transferred to a research role in 2016, a move she alleged was illegal and took to the Malawi High Court. The court did not hear the case and Mwale chose to retire from the army.

Career Chanju Samantha Mwale attended the Kamuzu Academy before graduating with a bachelor of laws degree from Chancellor College (University of Malawi). She worked as a senior resident magistrate before joining the Malawian Defence Force as an assistant legal officer in 2004, the first female lawyer to join the defence force.

Mwale was deployed as a military observer to the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2010 and 2011. Mwale was awarded a United Nations fellowship in international law in 2013. Mwale, a single mother, chose to retire from the army during the course of the proceedings.